Looks like the last of the decent weather for the moment, so eight knights plus one honorary knight Sean turned out to “enjoy” the last hurrah. The morning chill saw everyone layering up to protect themselves, except for “Iron Man” Mike, who must have forgotten he’d returned home from foreign holidays and was still sporting shorts. Perhaps he was continuing to work on his tan, but for the rest of us, we were glad to have our sunglasses on to minimise the glare reflected from his bare legs!
Living up to his moniker, Mike led the knights away from Market Cross over the Westwood to meet up with the remaining colleagues at Manor House. Fiddle Drill was confirmed as our café destination of choice, with Raymond suggesting to follow our usual route to Millington and back to Goodmanham. First out of the traps was Iron Man, no doubt feeling the chill after the brief “route planning” meeting. With north-westerly winds it proved tough going from the start as we wound our way towards Etton, South Dalton and Middleton-on-the-Wolds. Just to add to the level of difficulty, we then faced the long slog uphill to Huggate.
The knights regrouped outside Huggate to review the route. After some deliberation and discussion about how everyone felt, Iron Man stepped up to the plate again to make an executive decision that we’d amend the route and head directly to Warter. Taking advantage of the change of wind direction and the generally downhill terrain the pace picked up, none more so than Alan who conformed to his trademark and zoomed away off the front. When there was no sign of him at the Warter junction, it was thought that he was making a very early bid to be first to the café. His secret plan was revealed as we reached the summit of the Bailey Lane climb and Alan was at the ready with camera in hand to capture the cheery huffing and puffing faces as we passed by.
A lovely downhill into Londesborough set us up nicely for the next climb of Intake Hill before speeding onward to Market Weighton and the final burst up hill to the Fiddle Drill. Alan continued home without stopping, while the rest of us took our refreshments. A familiar bike was spotted outside the café and sure enough, inside reserving “our table” was Heather. Our return journey saw us continue upwards to the Kiplingcotes road and back through Etton. Another superb ride leaving us all with thoughts of the winter weather to come over the next few months.